Columnist Peter Benton: Holley captures PGA Pro-Pro event

Peter Benton

Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2000 | 1:07 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

Jerry Holley of All World Sports won low individual honors with a 3-under-par 69 in the Las Vegas Chapter, Southwest Section of the PGA Pro-Pro, played last week over Paiute's par-72 Sun Mountain course.

Shadow Creek's Wes Weston placed second at 71, followed by Shane Sanchez (Desert Willow), Matt Grobe (Rhodes Ranch) and Bob Ault (CasaBlanca) at 72.

Jim Kirwan (Willow Creek) won the Senior Division, shooting 73. Tying for second place with 75s were Bill Farkas (life member) and Stallion Mountain's John Long.

In the best-ball of twosome segment, Chadd Kaiser and Kory Sagers of TPC Canyons teamed to garner the top spot with a 65. Aaron Parr (Legacy) and Holley, along with South Shore's Dale Akridge and Darrin Euler plus the pairing of Desert Willow's Sanchez and Jim Neighbors, shared second with 67s.

That's four second-place finishes, of course.

With the Big Easy's runner-up finish to Tiger Woods in the recent British Open, Els laid claim to being the only player to place second in three majors in the same year -- and it is quite possible that Els could make it four out of four as the PGA Championship is just a couple of weeks away -- and Woods also is entered in that event.

(You may recall that Els lost by three strokes to Vijay Singh in The Masters and to Woods in the U.S. Open by 15 strokes).

You may also recall that at the beginning of the year, Woods defeated Els in a playoff to win the Mercedes Championship, and some months later at The Memorial, he was once again a disappointing second to Woods.

Even without a victory -- but with $2,443,239 in earnings so far this season -- Els is having a rather good year -- nothing though compared to that of Tiger, who has recorded six victories on the U.S. PGA Tour and amassed a whopping $5,735,581 in official money.

Ivars Gars won first flight low gross with a 73. Low net went to Wally Kitchen and his 65.

Sammy Lee's 78 took second flight low-gross honors while Terry Kirk's 66 won low net.

Gwen Willkomm won low gross in the third flight with his 77 and Ron Schmitz's fine 64 took low net.

The fourth flight low-gross victor was Robert Flaherty, who came in with an 81. Earl Nishimura garnered low net with his 67.

Tony Fernandez took low gross with Gerry Hurley and Ed Jamieson sharing low net in the fifth flight with scores of 91 and 66, respectively.